Maintenance
Sturdy designs in solid materials give the best guarantee that quality can be upheld for many years. Good materials stand up to wear and weather. The goal should be simple designs with a few paving types that clearly reflect the function of the different traffic spaces. The road’s green elements develop over the course of many years and must be maintained regularly in order to become healthy plantings. Solid materials, in contrast, wear down and deteriorate in time and must be regularly repaired. Materials and care must moreover be suited to the road’s current use and safety requirements. This provides an opportunity to evaluate the road’s architectural expression from an overall viewpoint. New signs, etc. might have had unfortunate aesthetic results and perhaps even impaired safety. Local road-maintenance manuals describe goals for both daily road maintenance and longer-term improvements and measures. In order to achieve the desired look and quality level, it is important to keep these goals constantly in mind. Various maintenance tools/ systems have been developed that aim to keep the road functional at all times. The systems describe both routine measures and ones that regularly require a qualitative on-the-spot assessment. In most systems, both practical and aesthetic aspects must be evaluated collectively at regular intervals. Most maintenance tools are continually being improved. Corresponding systems have been developed for roadside-planting manuals. These systems work both with the aesthetic dimension – requirements regarding the visual impression – and with the practical side – descriptions of the concrete measures that must be taken in order to achieve or maintain the desired look.
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Beautiful Roads - A Handbook of Road Architecture
